The North American Aviation FJ-1 Fury, the first of a series of four Navy aircraft, was a single-engine, single-seat, low-wing monoplane with short stubby wings looking much like a high-flying bomb. With the air intake, engine and fuel tanks enclosed within the airplane, the fighter was given super-thin, high-speed laminar flow wings. The FJ-1 was the first American jet fighter to employ a single, straight ram duct with its entrance in the nose. Later versions, the -2, -3 and -4 models, were designed with swept wings for operation at higher altitudes and faster speed over a greater range than earlier Fury jets.
Characteristic of the airplane was the high vertical stabilizer, with a ten-degree dihedral, or upsweep, of the horizontal surfaces, which placed the tail assembly up out of the wing shockwave area at high speeds and increases stability. The dihedral also provided better control at the low speeds necessary for carrier landings.
The airplane has a tricycle landing gear and droppable wing-tip tanks that were equipped with supplemental navigation lights. Built for carrier and land operations, the FJ-1 could take off from a landing field or a carrier flight deck with normal jet power.
A special feature built into the fighter was the bending nose gear, which enabled it to "kneel down" on the crowded deck of an aircraft carrier. Ground crews could lower the FJ-1 to a dolly, on which it could be taxied or easily pulled into any position desired.
The FJ-1 made the Navy's first operational jet landings and takeoffs at sea, and important improvements were built into succeeding models.
| First flight: | Sept. 11, 1946 |
|---|---|
| FJ-3 span: | 37 feet 1 inch |
| FJ-3 length: | 37 feet 7 inches |
| FJ-3 height: | 13 feet 8 inches |
| FJ-3 gross weight: | Approx. 18,000 pounds |
| FJ-3 power plant: | Wright J-65 Sapphire |
| FJ-3 speed: | Over 650 mph |
| FJ-3 armament: | Four 20 mm cannon |